Who's In Or Near The Hurricane?

[Pyramid]

Anyone here bolt from the East Coast or are you hunkering down? Some anecdotal reports would be appreciated if you can. Be safe out there folks and best wishes through this!

[bluesky99]

About 780,000 households without power (out of the 2.4 million households served by the local power company in this region). This number is growing every minute. Would not be surprised to see this number grow to the 1-1.5 million range by the end of the evening.

When a similar storm Isabel came through a few years back, we were out of power for nearly 2 weeks, with LOTS of trees down. The ground was very saturated before Isabel came through, which is not the case here, so less trees are expected to come down.

Of course the usual local tidal flooding in the low lying areas.

Winds are turning out to be a non-event (relatively speaking). About 20 miles inland with the eye approaching, we are having 35 mph sustained with gusts to 50 mph. The peak for us is expected to be about 8 pm, coinciding almost with high tide, so local tidal flooding is still on the increase.

Near the peak around 8 pm, the sustained winds are expected to be about 50 mph with higher gusts.

The local media is really whipping this one up real good, somewhat embarrasing.

There have been some localized tornadoes associated with this storm.

With all that said, unfortunately there have been a few deaths already, one coming from a tree that landed on the roof of a two-story apartment building, and another from a tree landing on a car.

If Irene had made landfall with the 110-120 mph winds that it had the day before landfall it would be a MUCH different story right now. But since it weakened and hit with 85 mph winds, things have gone better than originally expected.

[bluesky99]

As of about 7 pm, Richmond, VA (80 miles inland) has about 75% of people without power as compared to about 40% for coastal southeastern VA, and about 70% for coastal NE North Carolina.

[Goldhedge]

‎8 'deaths'...

On Friday, a man installing plywood on the window of his home in Onslow County died of a heart attack, said Ernie Seneca of the North Carolina Emergency Management office in Raleigh. A man in Nash County, N.C., was reported killed by a falling tree limb outside his home Saturday; and a third man died in Pitt County when he lost control of his vehicle and hit a tree, officials said. Two others in the state died in car accidents.

In Newport News, Va., an 11-year-old boy was killed when a tree crashed into his apartment building, said Kim Lee, a city spokeswoman. And in Brunswick County, a man died when a tree fell on his car.

And off New Smyrna Beach, Fla., authorities said, a 55-year-old surfer died in 7-foot waves.

[searcher]

Lots of down trees and wires here in Bucks County (PA) and lots of roads closed. Some areas have flooding and some (small number) areas have been evacuated. Good number of people lost power. Still going on.

[Oldmansmith]

Heavy rain here in Western Mass at 7 am. We are well inland, but at over 1,000 feet so they are predicting wind gusts up to 80; we'll see. Lots of preps and hand pump anyway, so don't really care if we lose power.

[CiscoKid]

I'm 90 minutes due north of Richmond and 20 minutes due west of Fredericksburg. Total non-event. Didn't even lose power and that surprises me because we usually lose power quite easily. I can only conclude that this is because I was ready for it. Generac was all ready to go. Chaise lounges brought in from around the pool. Trucks were moved into the center of the yard so as to not be under any falling tree limbs. Barbecue grill was tied to a deck railing. The list goes on. I was ready for a nice hurricane party. The only consolation I can take from this is that we got a heck of a lot of rain and my pool was needing a backflush anyway. Now I can do one without feeling guilty about the water I will lose.

To all of you who did get damage, I wish you a speedy recovery.